Welcome to Gaia! ::

The office is split into two seperate sections, with a black curtain acting as a divider between them. When one walks in, the first thing they will see is the desk and the papers neatly organized on top of it. There are filing cabinets in the corner of the room, and a seperate table with two chairs to the lower left of the desk (from the entering person's point-of-view). If one were to go directly right upon entering, they would pass through the black curtain and see a simple bed, a few wardrobes, and a small bookshelf with some reading material whenever the Lieutenant has free time.

[Entrance from Funeral Thread]



Tadashi, struggling to keep himself from heaving of exhaustion, finally arrived to his office. He took a long steady breath and tried to ignore the throbbing in both his refleshed arm and resocketed arm. He shot a venomous glance at his desk, daring it to force him to fill out a report of his side of the battle and write up a notice for the squad about what happened as well. He stood in place for a moment as if trying to decide what he was going to do before going through the curtain that led to his personal sleeping area. The still unmade bed beckoned, but first he wanted to make sure he'd be comfortable - he'd probably be here a while.

'You can get strong, you know,'said Tenma suddenly. Surprised, Tadashi looked down at the hilt of his sword. There was no hint of mocking in the tone of the zanpakuto's voice. 'You have much potential, and much more strength to be had. I promise you - you shall be great one day, and as another part of your soul, I know this to be fact. But you've yet to go far past the starting place, Sakamoto. You must cast away your fears, accept who you are, and trust in me...for I am your greatest companion, your comrade until the end, whether you still believe you hate that or not. 'I...don't know quite what to say,' replied Tadashi, fatigue momentarily forgotten. The zanpakuto had never acted in this manner before.

'Then I will show you. Lie down and place me somewhere on your person. Simply meditate after that, or go to sleep if you prefer.'

Perplexed but intrigued, Tadashi did as instructed. He lay down on his bed and sighed in a relieved sort of way before making himself comfortable as originally intended. He didn't know why the zanpakuto was asking for an audience in his inner world now, but if he had permission to go to sleep it would probably take a while. When he was satisfied, he slowly took out Tenma, sheath and all, and placed it horizontally above his waist. Closing his eyes, he allowed himself to finally go to sleep after the long day.

An hour later, he awoke to find himself in a completely different place. Tadashi had always envisioned his inner world as a dark unhospitable void of darkness, and he had been right. The first thing that caught his eye was the blood-red full moon hanging in the sky. There were nothing but gray storm clouds surrounding the moon, yet none of them ever seemed to cover it up. The moon cast a glow of crimson over the otherwise perpetual darkness of the inner world. Tearing his eyes away, he saw the first of the things that would leave him quite disturbed. For some reason, there was a human world playground to his left, swings and everything. Blinking in confusion, he wondered why such a thing would be there. Well, he'd always held a fascination in the human world, and did spent some of his free time reading human world novels, so perhaps the knowledge that playgrounds existed was manifested into his inner world. However, he didn't know why such a place would be in this world before he took a closer look. Almost every visible surface of every object had claw marks all over it, and somehow even more unsettling was the fact that the playground was completely colorless. It was gray and lifeless, rather. On top of that, the steel that seemed to hold some of the things together was horribly twisted and disfigured, yet nothing was actually broken. The swing set, for one, had its left support, which was pencil thin compared to the right one, twisted like a pretzel. Yet, its length still matched the right one and the swings didn't give out even despite the numerous claw marks further damaging it.

Tadashi was suddenly stricken with horror as he continued to look around, finding the darkness and macabre nonsensical world suffocating. 'This...is my soul? Its so dark...so...frightening,' he thought, wanting to wake himself up and leave. He was suddenly afraid of meeting the manifested Tenma. However, he resisted the urge by reminding himself it was his inner world. This was the one place of all places he shouldn't fear for any reason. Looking down and away from the bent and battered playground, he saw he was standing on a normal looking stone road (despite the fact that it like everything else held a glow of scarlet thanks to the moon). Taking a sweeping glance around him, he saw no other roads in sight - only random patches of playground, twisted steel that didn't even have a form, and dead trees. Suddenly, a single phrase popped into his head to describe everything around him.

"Devil's playground..." he muttered. Shaking his head, he began to walk forward. The only sound in existance right now were his feet stepping against the stone walkway. All he saw as he continued onward however were more deformed patches of steel and dead trees. He began to notice things as he calmed down. For one, everything was pitch black despite the full moon. Despite everything being pitch black, he could see everything perfectly. Despite being able to see everything perfectly, he neither liked what he saw nor could he make sense of it. Another thing was that while everything else was twisted, the road was perfectly straight - he'd expect it to be a winding path. The ground outside of the road was nothing more than a black mat of nothing. Not soil, not rock, just a carpet of darkness. 'My, how refreshing...' thought Tadashi. Only three colors existed here - black, gray, and red.

Just when he was getting sick of seeing the same depressing scene over and over again, he saw something different straight ahead. He stopped for a moment, just staring at it. Then, he began to run like the devil (or rather Tenma) was chasing after him. At first, he didn't know why this new thing intrigued him so, but when he got closer he understood perfectly why.

It was simply the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen in his entire life. A lake, only a simple bin of water. Yet, he could not sum it up in so few mediocre words. The sight was absolutely amazing to him. The black waters were running and alive, so unlike anything else in this world. The scarlet moon could be seen perfectly reflected in the middle of the waters, looking more glorious than macabre at the moment. He was mystified by everything about the lake, but the most impressive sight was the circle of the moon. He stood and watched for a few minutes, his mind a blank slate.

"It is beautiful, isn't it?" asked a voice from the side. Tadashi tore his eyes away from the lake and looked left, then right. He didn't see Tenma at all, so he went back to looking forward and did a double take. In the middle of the lake, where the crimson moon's circle was reflected, was Tenma. He was sitting on a swing that was set just above the water - the chains went straight up, but there was nothing to support them but air.

"Tell me...do you still fear this place?" asked Tenma, idly swinging back and forth. The demon himself, he was truly a frightening thing to behold. Though he was not monstrous by any means physically, his bandaged form was quite disturbing to look at. One would think a horribly disfigured creature was inside of those tattered cloths. The features that stood out most were the glowing red eyes visible through the bandages and the gigantic claw (which was quite real unlike the sword release) on its right hand. Yet, Tadashi was not particularly impressed for some reason. It was odd, but...

"No...I do not...not anymore," answered Tadashi. There was silence for a moment before he added,"Now...I actually feel happy."

It was true. As he'd walked down the road, his fears had lessened and lessened until he'd come across the lake where his fear had done a complete reversal into happiness.

"Then answer me this...do you still fear me?" asked the zanpakuto, slowing down his swinging. Tadashi didn't even hesitate and shook his head. Tenma nodded and then asked another question. "Then why do you fear me outside of this wonderful place? "

Tadashi didn't know the answer to that at all. He'd even forgotten about his fears of unleashing his battle lust through using Tenma. He hesitated, beginning to feel guilty. Of all things, he should fear this place and his sword...now he thought he understood how Tenma felt in battle. It was a sick kind of happiness derived from hurting others, and the wonderful feeling Tadashi had here was probably the same for Tenma in the midst of battle, probably even more so. He simply did not answer, not knowing how he could.

"You fear me because you are afraid of me...and yourself. You fear what you have the potential to do. You fear your own instincts. You are frightened, young one, of yourself,"said Tenma with a tone of finality, halting his swinging completely. Tadashi felt the words wash over him and accepted them. He knew them to be true, now.

Tenma then stood, holding his non-claw hand up against his face. He spoke again," Sakamoto Tadashi...remember...for every demon, there is a more powerful being controlling it. The demon is but one side of a living thing's spirit. The being...the all-powerful one that controls all, even the near-untameable demon is..." Tenma trailed off, unwrapping the bandages around his face. Tadashi expected to be revolted by the face that was hidden under the mummified Tenma, yet what he saw was completely unexpected. Tenma the demon was nothing but...

"...A man," finished Tenma, revealing a handsome face with jet-black hair cascading around the sides and down his back. Tadashi's mind took it in and suddenly understood everything that had been said.

At that moment, he was forced out of his inner world and back into dreamless slumber. When he woke, he would retain all his memories of what happened. For now, though, he would sleep...